the only chamber of commerce that is acting to solve this problem. our students surf better. politicians put themselves in second interest rates guaranteeing this uncertainty for students and their families. what we need is a long-term solution that gets washington out of the business of setting rates. president obama agrees. in his budget, he offered a plan for long-term reform by tying interest rate to the markets. republicans put together a similar measure, the smart solution for students act. the house passed it weeks before the deadline. the senate democrats have blocked the president's plan and refuse to consider hours. -- ours. toould say they are content let rate to double. republicans have pressed ahead in good faith. what we need is more leadership

from president obama. this week, speaker john boehner sent a letter to the president asking him to step in. i've reached out to my colleagues and the urgent members of the obama administration to take action. because of our efforts, there are signs of progress for a plan for a long-term solution. we need to finish the job and do so soon. this scrambling as a perfect illustration of why we to take the politics out of student loans was ever on. we should seize the opportunity before us. i urge president obama to get engaged so stop the rate hike and deliver a long-term solution our students and their families deserve. thank you for listening. the director of the heritage foundation and the cato institute debate immigration policy. the managing editor looks at the congressional agenda before the recess.

the carnegie endowment for international peace discusses the recent iranian presidential election. --ch a journal live at seven 7:00 a.m. fors a challenging time people who are conservatives. we have not only a democratic president but a quite liberal president was not been elected but reelected after putting into place some ideas and programs and projects that are very wrong. if the public had a chance to him about it, they did and they reelected him. it is a challenging time. it is an exciting time. what you are trying to do what i try to do and many others as modernize conservatism. in the concert was country -- conservatives and

the country. neither side, neither party is doing a good job of that. is a lot of opportunity for what america in the 21st century needs to change to get back to prosperity and a kind of cultural revival that we need. it is challenging. levin onith yuval sunday. >> c-span brought to you as a public service. >> this week, "the communicators" and that the cable show. we interview communications and espn. >> we want to introduce pat esser.

he is president of cox communications. give us a snapshot of cox communications? >> we celebrated our 50th anniversary. we are a private company part of cox enterprises. we serve about 6 million commercial and residential customers across the country. about 10 million households. we are a broadband, video, , business and residential services business. we are known. our commitment to our people and customers and investments we our made is what reputation is. >> is cox communications a growth company right now? >> it is. it has been a growth company for a lot of years. we did not get here easily. we a focus on what is important. 1996 as an example when the

telecom act went into effect. we were rolling out digital video and broadband services and residential telephone services. will the first two's -- we were the first to start bundling. our customers responded positively. we are able to get into new businesses that others cannot join about because we got him so early. we were rewarded for that. >> how important is business to ?usiness to cox >> we were early with a company would we learned the commercial space. the two came together. we saw the opportunity. it was small. the community was being underserved.

we have been micro focus on how to serve that market. the same networks and capabilities the reputations. about 1.5 represents billion in revenue to us. we are on our way to $2 billion. it is launching as i sit here. it's a great reputation and that space. >> and is headquartered in atlanta. you're also cochair of the cable show here in washington dc. -- as cable and tackle this is the right now? tech business right now? >> thank you for, care and spending -- for coming here and spending time with us. it is a time for us to talk with our consumers. it is a chance to talk to

members of congress, fcc members, commissioners, staff, chiefs.- it is important to us. it is a technology business. it is more than a simple wire that goes through your business -- they go through your community. it provides a lot of things that connect our customers to what is important to them. we never forget that. and national shows like this, we have a chance to talk about it. that is an we are. we connect people to things they care about. cox lives that motto every day. i will talk about a couple of things. what we want people to take away as innovation is taking place. you probably heard interviews you have done. if you look back to 1996, the

telecom act, you advance for to how much of this industry has spent in infrastructure. that assessment over $2 billion. over $24nvested billion. when you see the trends and what is going on a here about mobility and wi-fi which customers like, we announce we are doing a metro wi-fi exchange. 150,000 hotspots in the country. nobody provides that many hotspots. that will continue to grow. it is our consumers another place they can connect area while they travel, they can have that same connectivity. you hear about the second screen. i can talk about that. third-party partnerships. companies that probably did not exist five years ago and what we are doing with them to

provide new products and services to our customers. time.k about that all the we talked about the cloud. it's an able all of these incredible things in your life. what our platform is doing to make it easier for you as a customer. what a lot of exciting things going on. this cox going to come to tv everywhere? >> we have a platform right now. they can get it on the web by cox.com and entering their customer id and password that they can get on it. i talk about tv everywhere. about four years ago, i was in silicon valley with my peers in the industry and we saw a lot

of activity occurring. we wanted to better understand how silicon valley looks at us as an industry and how are -- our platform would help them innovate. we met with google and microsoft. one man said to me, he said to me, do you think you can compete with us for smart you live in a world where your innovation cycle is as fast as your ability to change out a box in a customer's home. that means every five years you innovate. in 18 weeks, it is out the door. how do you think you will innovate ideas that? it fired me up. not theuse it was truth, it was a rallying cry for me to go to my organization is figure out how we can

improve and deliver new services and marketing and technology and strategy. we are working very hard since then to deliver new products and services. .e did a ton of research we continue to do that research. customers told us they want a user interface that is easier to use and more intuitive and is simple and we need to make more investments and the interface. the second they said as i want to have second screens and my life. activate them so knock it -- so i can activate that image. you know me, make it more personal. help me cut that time to one minute. you have got the capability. you have the analytics. love their dvr. they said make it more powerful. we started on this mission.

murphy had a good pitcher. with the working very hard to bring that to work. -- marketing had a good picture. we are bringing a video revolution that our customers are going to find it very cool. we rolled out trio. a very interesting way to see products and the windowpanes that bring content in a more progressive way that our customers love. in december of this last year, we put in a recommendation engine that tracks what you can see, what you can like or dislike. you can turn it off if you want to. you on this individual level, and knows what you like and gathers that and gives it back to you in a recommendation engine. at the same time, look at video on demand. we have doubled the amount of

storage to 40,000 hours of storage. we are putting in the last two peas of the puzzle. and they are are bringing to the market a gateway on the device in your home that has six tuners and is in ip gateway. if you connect to the internet and bring apps and content to your television set. it is important to you. ofop of that, that's on top that, consumers want us to think about their second screens. a personal video express. if you touch and telling who it is him and presents three simple windowpanes in your library and your on-demand content. it is all centered around you and knows what you like and nine shows that are on the air that are relevant to you. it knows what is in your library, apps, would you prefer and even the dod. dod library and brings it to the top.

you have a your fingertips what you want. you can view it in your tablet. or you can send to tv and send it to the television set and enjoy it. the experts and your household can pick it up and say i am pated and it tells me -- and it tells me what pat likes. >> one of the issues we are discussing in washington is privacy, personal privacy, cyber privacy. -- have you been approached by government agencies to provide people personal information? protect that with a great amount of respect and responsibility. we do not share our customers information with no one. it is very secure. with a chief privacy officer. he and his team oversee that to

make sure nothing is getting out of the walls of our company. -- we have a chief privacy officer. you have to be a certain employee to do transactions. it is important to us. >> as president on how much time do you spend on privacy issues for washington? >> we talk about washington- based issues. i am in washington once a month. i spent a fair amount of time with people on the hill. that is a committee of the hell of the current -- hill or the congress who thinks about this and they have a lot of questions. we let them know what is going on. has a lot offcc power -- obviously, the fcc has a lot of power over our industry. because of that, i find myself about one on -- was a month

spending time. the regulatory world is a part of who we are. a big part of our businesses are highly regulated. understande we those regulations. changes are being made. to make sure our point of view and customers point of view is it being understood. >> what issue right now are you most concerned about? >> and business in general is mark -- in general? is theam concerned about believe it will be a rewrite of the telecom act. it is a very complex business that is changing. it is probably change in the last 30 minutes. those who are making those decisions that will carry understand all of the issues in the business and the variables and the complexity of the business. and to make sure they

understand how they are all interdependent. i do not worry but i spend time on it. i wanted them as well well informed as possible. >> would you like to see a rewrite? >> over time. more comprehensive and then piecemeal. we have to the world we live in. i am talking about video but i am going to to broadband. , 60% ofto our customers the content they get is no longer live video content on their tv. ,0% use dvr, a second screen it is being streamed are downloaded. the world has changed. it will continue to china. -- it will continue to change. -- andon talking to pat

we been talking to pat esser. when did you get started in this business is mark >> i got started in 1979. i got out of college. i was always passionate about this this. i started as a cable installer. >> were you very good at it? >> i was horrible. i wish i could say i was a good technician. you aref tech said going to marketing. you cannot be successful and technology. i sold door-to-door. all of the things marketing did back then. i heard about a company called cox communication. and got a virginia job as a public access officer. i love the company.

my school contacted me about getting my graduate degree. i went back and i started to hone my skills. i came out in 1981. i got back with cox communications immediately. i love the business. most of the channels did not exist -- mtv, espn. they were able to tell their story in the local market. it has been an incredible run. >> you are watching "the communicators" on c-span. >> thank you for coming today. >> joining us now is the president of espn. he is cochair of disney media networks. john skipper is his name. how did you become resident of

>> i am just as surprised as you are. the former president and have a great privilege of succeeding him and his decision started last january. it has been a great year for me. >> where do you get started? >> i got started at disney in 1990 when they wanted to start a magazine division. i moved from my home in new york city to california and help them start a magazine/book division. when disney bought abc and espn wanted to start a magazine. >> you do not start life as an athlete and move up? >> i began life as a mediocre athlete. i played basketball. nobody came along and recruited me. >> what is the biggest

competition for espn? and five or 10 years what is the biggest competition? >> there's a lot of competition in sports and there always has been. the leaks have their own networks. right now, fox is going to launch a new channel. -- launched a new channel nbc launched a new channel. there are conference networks. turner, cbs -- we have plenty of competition. it is competition for programming rights, advertising dollars. and for eyeballs. >> where to go from here? >> it gets more collocated and competitive. everybody understands it is sports. it's a sweet spot of media. it is almost the only thing you have to watch live.

that has increase is value. everybody has seen that now. whether it is people partner and to show sports as we have it on facebook and other networks and other cable networks. everybody understands sports rights are quite valuable. >> when it comes to espn sports and tv everywhere, isn't available on all devices? >> yes, it is. that's the perfect question for me. the answer is it yes. it is important to us. if you have to watch your game live, it is best to be in your living room with a big hd screen in front of you. if you are in the office for the world cup, you watch it on your computer. if you are at the picnic, you watch it on your tablet. if you're in a business meeting,

you might take a look at your smart phone and watch the game there. it is very important to us. we were first. espn2,en two and -- espn u available everywhere. >> the potential deal with verizon where you can have live streaming but it would not count against your cap? >> that was in expiration. we are always looking up the ink on top of technology. -- that was an exploration. -- we are always looking to be on top of technology. it is nothing imminent. wanted to make sure our products are available. >> is there a price point where people will say no, i do not want sports i cannot afford to pay for sports anymore?

>> will provide as much of value to fans as possible. we have aggregated the portfolio rights we have. the new college football chairmanship is going to be on espn and all of wilmington and the u.s. account -- wimbledon and the u.s. open will be on espn. monday night football. there's a lot of value. you can watch it on any of the vices we were talking about. .com andgo on to espn get articles. we think it is appropriate pricing. as we talk about cap -- talk to our partners, they believe it is voluble. but what you say to senator mccain who is introduced this a

la carte bill, what is your response? >> my response is highly respectful. he has been right but in this case, he is wrong. it will not lead to more choices. it will be less choices. it will be not less of an expense. it will be more of an expense to consumers. they will be forced to rise prices. channels will go out of business. it will not work. there's another myth being perpetuated. there's an awful lot of people not watching espn. last week 100 13 million people watched or laws don't listen to espn. people who get it watches. we are not a niche channel. go through any bar or airport or dorm room, we are on.

it is live sports. we are not a niche channel. that is wrong. >> i want to ask you about social issues. jason collins, out. aboutspn have a policy approaching social issues like that? >> it is complicated. that does not mean that capture every situation. we are encountering new situations. we'll never catch up. there are complicated issues. we have commentators, analysts, writers whose job it is to give their opinion. we do not have reporters whose job it is to report -- we do have reporters who job it is to report and state facts. who began torter express their point of view about the social issues.

that was a mistake on his part. we put him in a different circumstance. we bear responsibility. we want to be as a company, we want to be socially responsible. we are inclusive and nondiscriminatory and opportunities for all people including gay employees. these are not want to have separate career paths, success paths for homosexuals. we encourage gay people to work at espn. we have that. it does not mean it is appropriate to advocate for that. we do not have an editorial page. we have individuals who express their opinions. , we do not have a point of view. >> with a catching up with john skipper who is president of espn. you are watching "the communicators" on c-span.

created in 1979. >> tonight, congressional leaders and vice president joe honor for jim douglas. here are some of his remarks. madendemning the nation slave, he embraced its principles and use them as a source to try and free others. tofought to make it live up those ennobling words in the constitution. today, we celebrate the

anniversary of the victory over 13.ery which is june finally, the message got to texas. i did not mean it the way it sounded. [laughter] it just took time. it took a long time to get to delaware. the passage of the 13th and 14th amendments. he lived to serve this government as a statesman in another capacity. arguably no one who fought harder for citizenship and full equality in frigid douglas. he askedntury ago, and a good question. what the people -- and what of the people of done that they should be excluded from the privileges of the ballot box?

many representatives and residents like representative norton can trace their families back to former slaves. who entered this district seeking freedom >> we agree with him. , budgetrt home rule autonomy. the people in the district made the right choice. they put alamo forms norton and frederick douglass in this capital. i do not see either of them leaving until all of the district residents get their voice. [applause] ceremony at the capitol tonight at 8:00 eastern